Argentina abortion: Senate to vote on legalisation
Senators in Argentina are debating a bill which would legalise abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy.
If it passes, the bill would be groundbreaking for Latin America, a region which has some of the world's most restrictive abortion laws.
The bill has already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies but the result in the Senate is predicted to be tight.
In 2018 senators narrowly voted against legalising abortion but this time the bill has the backing of the government.
The Catholic Church, which remains highly influential in Latin America, opposes the move.
It has called on senators to reject the bill. Pope Francis, who is Argentine, tweeted just hours before the debate that "every outcast is a child of God".
Both supporters of the legalisation and anti-abortion activists have gathered outside Congress to try and sway undecided senators.
Currently, abortions are only permitted in Argentina in cases of rape or when the mother's health is at risk.
Abortions are completely banned in El Salvador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic and only allowed in certain restricted circumstances in most other Latin American nations.
In the wider region, only Uruguay, Cuba, Guyana and parts of Mexico currently allow women to request an abortion, with varying limits on the number of weeks of pregnancy in which an abortion is legal.
In 2018, when Argentina's Congress last voted on the matter, the measure scraped through the lower house by four votes. But it was rejected in the Senate by 38 to 31.
This time, the lower house approved it by a wider margin - 131-117. Of the 72-member Senate, five members are reportedly still undecided.
The debate is expected to be long and heated.
OP's take: I expect it to pass by a narrow margin, and I hope it does, both as a matter of principle (I'm pro-choice) and just to end this debate for once and for all (I'm so exhausted of listening to some really idiotic politicians and pundits deliver increasingly deranged hot takes on why legalizing abortion is bad).
What say you, NSG? Do you hope it passes? Do you have any cool conspiracy theories on why some people want it passed?
